Curating salutogenic spaces in post-pandemic hybrid work environments: A photo-elicitation qualitative study

Abstract

This article investigates the lived experience of hybrid working and the impact this has on knowledge workers’ psychosocial health and wellbeing. Specifically, we focus on how the workplace can promote or hinder wellbeing and how hybrid working is experienced after the pandemic. We draw on salutogenic theory – which considers the factors that support and enhance health and wellbeing – in the context of workplaces, to help us understand individual's experiences of hybrid working spaces. This draws attention to new critical insights into the relationship between workspaces and wellbeing. This article is based on empirical, visual data gathered from a case study of university academic and professional services staff, who were asked to take photographs of their hybrid working practices. Our findings highlight the paradox that individual curation of workspaces represents both personalisation and depersonalisation as employees seek to anchor self-identity and a sense of belonging to the workspace. We offer three contributions in this paper. First, little is known of the experiences of those attending hybrid work environments following the pandemic; therefore, our research contributes to this by using salutogenic theory to emphasise the importance of individuals having control over how they shape their environments to promote personal wellbeing. Second, we demonstrate how the use of visual methods to explore hybrid working highlights how individuals mobilise resources within their workspaces to develop a self-responsibility for health. Third, we highlight the importance of how organisations should recognise individual circumstances when developing hybrid working policies.